Ideas? Who needs 'em?

I just got out of an editorial meeting (my first) and I'm not sure what to make of it. During the story idea shootaround, only 5 of us had anything to contribute (out of 25). I had had two, so I made everyone look bad, including the RYERSON intern (take that!).

So is it really not that important to have story ideas? Or, maybe once you have a job, you don't need to impress anyone anymore and can just ride my coattails.

Well, at least it was better than listening to a pitch by Andrei or David Anderson.

Add snappy title here

Why the heck can't I get sick during a job I DON'T want!?!?! I'm stuck at home b/c they don't like me coming in and yakking in the wastebins. Touchy people!!!

Anyway, work has been great. I've been busy every day and had some fun outings to Dominion and such picking up stuff for photoshoots. I got to talk to Jeanne Bekker on Monday. I know it's no Uma, but not all of us get to be hot-shots....I think we all know who I'm talking about.

Seriously, though, how cool is getting sent to New York?

Has anyone heard from Erin Goodman? Has she disappeared off the face of the earth?

I'm not getting paid but I am getting lots of free stuff. Books, makeup, skin creams. One of the magazines on my floor is always giving this stuff away. And they INSISTED I take some of it. When someone waves $200 of skin cream at me, I have to take it, don't I?

It's amazing to see my ideas make it into the magazine. Most are just product ideas but I get to pick some of the books and toys to review. They seem to like me. Too bad they're too broke to hire me! I keep hoping that they'll find me indispensible and keep me on.

Anyway, nothing too exciting. Just wanted to get my voice in there.

George Strombo-who? part deux

My floor is where the do a lot of tv tapings. I see a lot of Petey Mansbridge, Heather Hiscox, other TV people. I saw Rick Mercer last week.

Yesterday I saw some guy walking around this floor dressed all in black, one of those studded belts, long-ass wallet chain, big sideburns.

Calm down Ellin; it wasn't Strombo. Who is this idiot? He couldn’t possibly be trying any harder to be Strombo, but it was just sad. Real subtle, guy.

I could slap on a CNN golf shirt, hitch up my pants and screw up everything I touch, but no matter how much I look like Steve Cogan, I won't be him.

there's no such thing as 'too cynical'. right?

i just got told by my editor that what i wrote was 'too cynical'. take that neil ward! tellin' me i'm not cynical enough..grumble grumble..i can be damn cynical. apparently even while writing a fish n' chip restaurant review . sigh. it's more a curse than a gift, really.

Fact of the day

Wow, did you know 66,500 children went missing in Canada last year?

Stupid kids.

Deep fried balls

I love it when editor's either miss stuff or just let it slide. I got this line printed in today's paper:

"In a time when Britannia ruled the waves and Charlotte was queen, balls were held across the Canadas..."

I've never been more proud.

That french fry thing is in today's, too. Chip trucks ahoy: Which one?

Cheers all!

... it pours

Holy Christ, I'm hung over.

When it rains...

So I'm starting to get stuff piled on me, which is cool. At least I'm keeping busy. But then today I get handed an obit to write. Only obit I ever wrote was in Ted's class way back when with the whale-stuffing animal lover. Calling the widow was a bit daunting.

But then I skipped out of the newsroom early to hit the observatory at York and T and T Supermarket.

Oh, and another intern started this week and I've already pawned off work to him. I'm no longer the bottom feeder. The coup has begun! Vive le revolucion! Or some such propagandistic rhetoric.

George Strombo-who?

Thanks George, but I can't pass on your regards; they've already fired his ass to make room for me. They're giving that charlatan until the end of the month, then it's all me, baby!

They offered me the National first, but I decided it was too dull, so I let Petey Mansbridge keep his job, provided he fetches me timbits.

ho hum

hey guys, thanks for the black history help. unfortunately, I may be losing my sidebar assignment because the original story it was for fell through and now the guy who was writing that will probably be writing an entire story concerning my sidebar topic. ah well. george, it sounds like yer having lots of fun! i can't wait to read your gonzoization of the steven segal skin cream press conferance. that's gold! the highlight of my day was getting to leave early cuz there was nothing to do. yay! phil i have an assignment similar to what it seems like you've been doing. i get to review 'chippy's' some rock n' roll fish n' chip place on queen west. but here's the kicker: it has to be a positive review, because it's for part of our readers poll and they voted chippy's 'best takeout'. all i can say is it better be good. livia, maybe you could interview steven harper? then you could ask him why he wants to ruin this country for his kids, or if he wants to send them to the middle east. hehe good times. keep up the good work guys!

Of blogs and internships

Howdy all.

As you can see, I changed the look of this thing. The other one was a bit hard to read.

And I suppose I should fill you in on what I've been up to. I've had two bylines so far. This first was a bunch of concert listings. Not overly stimulating stuff, but that was my job on my first day:
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Concerts in '07

The second was just a list of upcoming events:
T.O. Do

I've done some streeters looking for tourists - it's surprisingly hard to discern exactly who a tourist is in this city. Just ask the group of Filipino ladies taking photos of Union Station and the CN Tower I mistakenly approached.

I also compared the three chip trucks in front of Nathan Phillips Square and picked a winner. Stay tuned for that story!

On Monday I visited the Toronto Police Museum and Steam Whistle Brewery for another tourist piece, and I have a list of six other places to visit.

And then yesterday I got handed three assignments for FP Weekend. Which reminds me, do any of you know hockey parents with a kid playing rep hockey outside of Ontario?

I'm really happy to see people using this new-fangled Internet doohickey. It's good to see what people are up to.

Cheers.

Maybe you can help me?

Two quick things:

Do you know a famous Canadian (preferable popular) who has kids? I may need a backup interview in case the Giller winner can't be reached until the next issue.

Also, do you know of any cool new thing that a pregnant mom just HAS to have? Any cool ideas?

Ok, that's it. If you can help out I'd appreciate it but if you can't, no biggie.

I must be bored

So I did a quick search for Toronto Black History stuff:

http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca/Braithwaite_Public.htm

"Born on October 23, 1923 to West Indian parents in Toronto, in 1963, he became the first Black Canadian to be elected to a provincial legislature in Canada."

http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca/KevinJunor.pdf

Has a bunch of speaking engagements this month. Torontonian. More but I can't cut and paste and I'm lazy.

http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca/

The above link is where I found all the info. Also had this:

"The Necropolis Cemetery is located in Cabbagetown, downtown Toronto. It is the final resting place of Lucie and Thornton Blackburn. They were former slaves from Kentucky who escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. They are credited for setting up the first taxi service in Toronto named The City. Also buried at Necropolis is Anderson Ruffin Abbot, the first Canadian-born black surgeon. So is Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, whose life was cut short by American pilots during a so called "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan on April 18, 2002 "

Other links with info:

http://www.tgmag.ca/magic/mt40.html
http://billgenova.tripod.com/genovatours/id98.html (this is a black history tour in TO)
http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~gpieters/blklinks.html
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-02-23/news_story.php

Obviously some of these will need backing but they might be a good start.

news about no news and nothing: the update

heya dudes. glad to hear some people are actually writing stories n' stuff at their internships. good job guys! i'm seriously jealous of you all. things are ok at the eye offices, if a little slow. i fact check a lot, but (of course) it's much different than susan mclelland's version. i use google mostly. mostly. i've been working on a sidebar (whoo!) for a black history story that i did not write for next issue. so if any of you know some interesting and lesser known black history facts specifically related to toronto, feel free to let me know. sorry for the lack of enthusiasm folks, not that you were expecting any different, i'm probably just tired from doing nothing all day. so, as i sit here at my desk i'm hoping that things will pick up soon. if not, well, there's only 14.5 weeks to go! let the countdown begin :)

Wow, it worked

Hi all,

Or Few. How many people are using this thing anyway?

Anybody got any story ideas? It's a very slow news day.

I'm on week 4 of the placement; I'll be done in no time. Then it's a real job! (which probably only plays slightly more than the $0 I make right now!)

Here's a bit of what I've been up to:

An interactive world conflict map and there's a link to an interview I did with some global security expert:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/gmaps/world-conflicts/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/world-conflicts/

Or, for something more light-hearted (but still educational):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/forcesofnature/winter-solstice.html

For you sports fans, here's a piece on the ridiculous history of Montreal's Olympic Stadium:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/who-olympic-stadium/

Unfortunately, I get no bylines for any of this crap. Just take my word for it that I wrote them.

Let's see more posts here. Aside from Phil getting drunk and eating fries, what sort of assignments are you all doing?

Steve (not Cogan)

Crossing my fingers & toes & hoping this post works!

Hi all,

So I'm jumping on the bandwagon chez Liv after her "get on it" email. yikes! lol...

As for me, I haven't really been up to much lately...still working on stuff for upcoming issues of Collision Repair, Bodyworx magazine, and the training directory and also doing my thing at Glow.

So my first story was published both in print and online for Collision Repair. This is a story I wrote a couple months ago while we were still in school on waterborne paints (which is a new form of paint that will be used all throughout Canada within the next couple of years). Exciting, huh? If you want to check out the link for the online story, visit http://collisionrepairmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=9

That's about it!

By the way, good luck with your Giller interview Liv, and to the rest of you, START BLOGGING! :)

Maxine :)

Sneezing up a storm

Sick today so I'm working from home. Researching what the hip pregnant woman is doing/buying/dreaming about. Did you know they make soothers with bling? Of course you did!

Anyway, part of the reason I'm posting is because THAT'S WHAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING!! It's Tuesday! Surely someone has something to add!!

Has anyone heard from Goodman? What's she doing?

I want pics of the mysterious lady in Phil's life and Wall (wall? Is that a nickname? Am I out of the loop?)

Livia

Ha! It worked!

Ok, so, while I LOVE my placement I have had nothing but problems with the equipment. Picture calling all over the world, trying to reach media people for bicycle makers (not as exciting as alpacas, I know) and having to make those calls sitting on the floor with the phone and your notes resting on a cardboard box. It's been two days and many, many requests for a phone....I'm going in early on Monday to make some calls with dignity at a coworker's desk.

Other than that (and a keyboard that didn't have a workiong spacebar) it's a great spot.

Off to the Madison, I think. Have a good weekend.

Livia

Welcome!

OK, I literally just set this up and don't know this all works for a group, but it should be easy to figure it out.

If there's something you get stuck on, e-mail me and I'll try to figure it out.

That said, post away!

Phil